Product validation

Arup

The hardest recommendation a designer can make is to stop. Not to iterate, not to pivot, not to simplify. To stop entirely. This case study is about making that recommendation, building the evidence to support it and navigating a stakeholder who did not want to hear it.

Role

Product Designer

Team

Product Manager, Business Analyst, Technical Lead, Engineers

Timeline

May 2022 – Jun 2022

A visual mapping and analysis tool had been in development at Arup to help design managers in the built environment analyse connections between design considerations, strategic drivers and project outcomes. The second version had accumulated significant issues around stability, scalability and usability. The team faced a decision. Release a third version with new features or stop further development entirely.

The Product Manager responsible for the tool was an engineer who had worked directly with the methodology it was built to support. That practitioner experience made the PM a genuine subject matter expert. The PM believed in the product and wanted to take it to the next version.

Starting with the full picture

Before a single concept, a map of everything the PM envisioned.

I began with process mapping to understand the full workflow the Product Manager had in mind. The PM's vision extended beyond what the existing product covered and understanding that complete methodology was the foundation for everything that followed.

Current state process map

Research and competitive analysis

The market had moved. The product had not.

Competitive analysis came next. Miro and Mural had advanced significantly during the COVID period and were already solving the core jobs the tool was trying to do, with greater capability and far less friction.

At this point I had a strong sense the product was not viable. A recommendation without user evidence is an opinion, not a finding. I initiated user research. The Product Manager was new to user research and did not initially see its value. I made the case and the PM agreed.

I did not conduct the sessions and report back. I brought the PM in directly to hear from users firsthand. Design managers in the built environment were not engaging with the tool rigorously.

The difficult conversation

PM was adamant. I did not back down.

When I shared the finding that further development was not feasible, the Product Manager disagreed. The PM was adamant about continuing. I did not back down but I also did not force a confrontation.

I changed my approach. I brought another Product Manager into subsequent conversations for an additional product perspective. I held a separate session with the technical lead and engineering team for feasibility and effort review. I also agreed to produce high-level concepts and user flows, not as a proposed solution but to give the engineers enough detail to produce accurate effort estimates.

Future state user flow

The presentation

The numbers did the work a recommendation alone could not.

I brought everyone into a single session. The Product Manager, the second Product Manager, the technical lead and the engineering team. I presented the full picture. The process map, the competitive landscape, the user research findings, the high-level design concepts and the future-state user flow.

The engineering team provided effort estimates. It was the first time the Product Manager heard those numbers with the full team present. The engineers independently confirmed the assessment. Too much technical debt. External tools already doing the jobs end to end.

The Product Manager took time to come to terms with the reality. The business decided not to allocate further budget. No next version was built.

High-level concept designs

Outcome

The most useful thing I produced was a recommendation to stop.

The existing product was eventually discontinued. The research, the competitive analysis and the engineering estimates together made a case that could not be dismissed. Significant investment had already gone into the product. The engineering estimate for the next round was substantial. The recommendation saved the organisation from compounding that investment in a space it could not win.

This was one of the first times I told a senior stakeholder that a product should not go forward. I now treat stopping as a legitimate outcome of a design process, not a failure.